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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



rowed from butter, is not an adulteration. 

 But to supply sugar made from corn-starch 

 for the ordinary sugar made from cane-juice, 

 or to deal out milk-and-water or skim-milk 

 for entire milk, is an adulteration a viola- 

 tion of the right of the consumer to obtain 

 his food on his own discretion." The plea 

 that may be made, that the adulterant is 

 as wholesome as the real article " is not to 

 be heard at all ; it belongs to the consumer 

 to judge for himself what he will provide 

 for his own table." Even if the falsifica- 

 tion be not committed to injure health, it is 

 directly objectionable on sanitary grounds, 

 for it is a violation of a great safeguard of 

 health. To the plea that people are not 

 really deceived by the sophistications, but 

 that they are understood, tolerated, and even 

 preferred by customers, " let it be replied, 

 if the pretense is so thin as to deceive 

 no one, and if the admixture is in demand 

 for use as it is, the pretense can the more 

 easily be dropped, and at any rate the ad- 

 mixture must go under its own description 

 and by its own name. Not a single article, 

 unless indictable as a positive poison, need 

 be withdrawn from the market." 



Festivals of the Pagan Iroquois. Mrs. 



Erminie A. Smith gave an interesting ac- 

 count, at the late meeting of the American 

 Association, of some peculiar festivals and 

 superstitions of the Iroquois Indians. About 

 half the Iroquois, she said, are not Chris- 

 tians, but worship a Great Spirit, a god of 

 love, and look to him with great confidence. 

 Their religion is not idolatrous, but quite 

 spiritual. Their only private worship is 

 burning tobacco, and an occasional solitary 

 dance of the squaws. There are eight an- 

 nual festivals, at which varied Romish, Jew- 

 ish, or Protestant forms have been en- 

 grafted on the ancient dancing, games, and 

 incense-burning. The Tuscaroras of West- 

 ern New York have hardly a trace of their 

 old religion. About half the Senecas are 

 still pagan. The Onondagas have numer- 

 ous festivals, beginning with the feast at 

 the first new moon of the new year, at which 

 the chiefs occupy four days in narrating the 

 teachings of Handsome Lake, who nearly a 

 hundred years ago introduced a new form 

 into their religion. On the next three days 

 the chiefs and their followers "put their 



sins in the wampum " (i. e., confess). The 

 clans are then divided into sides for the 

 gambling, which lasts three days. A white 

 dog is strangled and presented to the win- 

 ning side, who decorate it and dance around 

 it. Afterward the dog is thrown into the 

 fire, and the sides are reunited. Then there 

 are war-dances, and the women dance with- 

 out lifting their feet from the ground. At 

 the tapping of the maple-trees there is a 

 war-dance to bring warm weather and make 

 the sap flow. A seven days' festival is held 

 at corn-planting, and there are also straw- 

 berry, bean, and green-corn festivals ; the 

 latter is preceded by a hunt. In the gam- 

 bling the women sometimes play against the 

 men for the silver brooches which cover 

 their dresses. The last public festival is at 

 the corn-gathering, when there is a repeti- 

 tion of the confession of sins. A special 

 dance takes place at the death of a medi- 

 cine-man. The property of an oi'dinary 

 dead person is often played for. Friend- 

 ships are cemented by dances. It is a sad 

 fact that the pagan Iroquois are better than 

 their Christian brethren. No wonder the 

 missionaries have great obstacles, when all 

 the immoral white intruders are counted 

 as Christians. New York has much to an- 

 swer for, and should care more for her In- 

 dians than for the Greenlanders and Hot- 

 tentots. The author dwelt on the great in- 

 fluence for good of one good woman. Great 

 results have flowed from some schools 

 founded long ago. Mrs. Smith introduced 

 the following names of the moons, or mouths, 

 in the Mohawk tongue : January, old beech- 

 leaves fall ; February, bull-frog on pond ; 

 March, moss all falls ; April, turkeys gob- 

 ble ; May, plant corn ; June, strawberries 

 begin ; July, corn getting ripe ; August, 

 corn quite ripe ; September, all ripe and 

 dry ; October, getting cold ; November, cold- 

 er ; December, very cold. 



Suicide in Switzerland. Mr. Wynell- 

 Mayow has attributed the high rate of 

 suicide that has been remarked in Switzer- 

 land to Calvinism, and assumes that that 

 republic "is the most Calvinistic country 

 in the world." Mr. William Westall, in 

 the London " Spectator," shows that he is 

 wrong in two points. Calvinism is not the 

 faith of the majority in the confederation, 



